Sunday, June 24, 2018

LET'S DO LAUNCH


 At long last, Beast is on the way!

The official publication day is looming — July 10 — after which you can expect to find Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge arriving in your mailbox, on a bookstore shelf near you, or a reading device of your choice.

And then, one week later — July 17 — please join me at my reading/book-signing event for Beast at our own, beloved Bookshop Santa Cruz! Help me get Beast properly launched into the world.

I'll be sharing stories of how and why Beast came into being, the rocky road to publication, the peculiarities of a writer's life, and why my Beast is most emphatically NOT the Disney version!

Showtime is 7 pm, Tuesday, July 17.

Hope to see you there!

Saturday, June 23, 2018

IT'S A BOOK!

Behold, friends and readers!

My first hard-cover copy of Beast arrived this week!

It's photographed in situ on my desk, so you can see how the gold foil lettering and scarlet rose design catch the light. Pretty cool, huh?

I am utterly stoked, of course, to finally hold his beautiful production in my hand!

Yet it's a bittersweet moment for me, that James isn't here to share the excitement.

My Art Boy knew better than anyone everything I went through in the two-year editing process to get to this point. We went through it, together.

He would be so delighted that all my hard work — and his unflagging patience and encouragement — had finally paid off.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

CELEBRATING JAMES

Everybody asks me if there will be some sort of public event in honor of James Aschbacher.

In a word: yes!

A dedicated team of Wonder Women, all very close to James and me, are planning this event with their usual wit, poise, good humor, and passion. And I am utterly thrilled they have invited me to be part of the project!

Fear not; event planners extraordinaire Ann Griswold Ostermann, Linda Bixby, Jana Marcus, and Donna Mekis are on the job. Ladies, you rock!

Celebrating James will take place on Saturday, August 25, at the Rio. (We're expecting a crowd!)

James' longtime friend and former business partner, Joe Ferrara will sing. Speakers will speak (including any audience members who wish to chime in), and a slide show of candid photographs from my vast archive will be on a loop upstage.

And of course there will be bubbly! Doors open at 6, and festivities begin at 6:30.

How can you (yes, you!) get involved? The instigators have set up a GoFundMe page to underwrite this event, and keep it FREE to the public!

We've almost reached our goal already, but believe me, it warms the very cockles of my heart to view all the notes of support and encouragement all of you in the community are leaving on the page in honor of my Art Boy!

He would be so touched! And so am I. Big time!

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

AUDIBLE BEAST


This just in: Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge has a new cover!

No, I don't mean the fabulous Candlewick cover for the print edition. Nobody is monkeying around with that one!

This is the new cover for the audiobook version — available for pre-order from Audible, STARTING TODAY!

Sorry, I wasn't able to grab a bigger image of it, but you get the idea. I admit, I'm surprised at the rose under the bell jar. There is no such device in my book as the petals falling off the enchanted rose like the sands of time in an hourglass; that's a Disney invention.

But I think the brooding mood of this image is just right!

What do you think?

Monday, June 11, 2018

BEAST TRANSFORMED


One more month until Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge is unleashed on the world!

In the meantime, let's celebrate with one more — well, actually two more — Beasts of the Month.

These two vintage images may help to illustrate why my book is different from more traditional versions of Beauty and the Beast.

Take a look at these two views of the transformation scene.

This is what I call the moment that all thinking women dread — noble, soulful Beast transformed back into a (yawn) handsome  Prince!

The first is an Art Nouveau postcard from 1906, illustrated by Sophia May Bowley.

I do like the little beast-heads decorating his tunic and sleeve.

But isn't it a little weird that he's shrugged off his Beast persona like a cheap suit?

Over here, we have an illustration by Peter Newell from the book Favorite Fairy Tales, published in 1907.

Now, this is more like my reaction would be if I suddenly saw that the extraordinary Beast I'd fallen in love with had turned into an ordinary prince!

Wait, what? Where's my Beast?

Beast did all the work of wooing Beauty. Why should the Prince get the girl?

Beast (and his Lucie) get a much more satisfying ending in my book!


(Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge lopes onto bookshelves and devices everywhere on July 10!)

Sunday, June 10, 2018

NOURISHING





Had a lovely time last Sunday at Pajaro Valley Arts Gallery.




It was the reception for the annual membership show, "What Nourishes Us," in which member artists pay tribute to the things that inspire and/or nurture their work.








For the last two-and-a-half years, James Aschbacher sat on the PVA board and managed the in-house Gallery Store.




So now, for the run of the membership show, (through July 15), they've turned the Gallery Store into a tribute room to my Art Boy!





The entire store space is full of art loaned to the gallery from the private collections of PVA members.



It's the biggest collection of his work you'll probably ever see, outside of my house!




Talk about nourishing! I was basking in the glow of his upbeat energy just being in the room!




(Okay, maybe it was the bubbly they plied me with . . . )

Art Boy-painted chair for a Shakespeare SC auction




And while you're there, of course, don't forget to stroll around the rest of the show to see what inspires more than 70 local artists.





Cheers to James!









Big thanks to PVA!





Wednesday, June 6, 2018

FOUR STARS!


Received this 4-star review from the online book blog, Rajiv's Reviews, over the weekend!

He says, in part:

There are lots of twists and turns, and I found myself glued to the book. I also loved the climax of the book and was satisfied with how the characters were treated.

Lisa Jensen has written this story in a beautiful and majestic manner. Her words are like fine wine and compliment to the setting and timelines of the story.


Thanks so much, Rajiv!

Saturday, June 2, 2018

UNCOUPLING

Midnight In the Garden. But I think of it as Letting Go




On her melancholy Blue album, in a song about the aftermath of a painful break-up, Joni Mitchell sings, "The bed's too big/The frying pan's too wide."

Here's what I would add to that checklist:

It takes twice as long in the morning to make half the breakfast. There is less to prepare (yogurt, fruit, toast, tea for one), but also less time, since I have to do all James' morning chores as well — feed the kitty, bring in the paper, open the shades, turn on the tea kettle, haul the bucket out of the shower to water the plants outside.

When I get out of the shower, I have to remind myself to take the plug back out of the drain and hang the wet bath mat back on its rack; nobody is coming in after me to use them.

A single crossword puzzle might last me weeks! Some couples might come to blows if one found the other trying to horn in on his or her puzzle, but crossword puzzles are one other thing that James and I always did together. Each of us had different bits of arcane information to contribute — although my main job was to spellcheck his answers!

Family and Friends   
We used to work on crosswords at meal times, as a way to eat more slowly, and also savor a few laughs before heading into the business of the day — or, later in the evening, confronting the (dreaded) news hour. Little victories, like finally figuring out a particularly knotty clue, or getting irate over a particulaly "specious" answer, aren't as much fun on my own.

Until I started walking around our life in his shoes, I had no idea how time- consuming his half of our couplehood could be. I'm getting a whole new appreciation for the hard work he did evey day just to keep our life going — and for the unfailing good cheer with which he approached every task.

Now, without him, I have to line up movie dates, yoga buddies, people who do yard work and home repair, as well as indulgent friends willing to take me on errands. It takes a village of wonderful friends and neighbors to replace one Art Boy!

And then there's housecleaning. Either one of us might have occasionally picked up the vacuum, or a broom, or a dustrag in random moments, but neither one of us was ever obsessed with keeping things spic-and-span. So, a little benign neglect around here will be considered okay — at first. (We're "creatives;" nobody expects spotless.) But I have to monitor the situation, now that I'm on my own. Navigating some charming artistic clutter around the house is one thing — as long as I don't degenerate into Miss Havisham!

James loved every nanosecond of this life we worked so hard to build together. His enthusiasm for life was enormous. And so, now, even though I'm stuck in a kind of half-life without him, I can't let my own enthusiasm for life diminish by half. That wouldn't be fair to James.

According to an old Wiccan proverb I read recently, "They are dead, so we must live."

That's the spirit!


(Paintings by James Aschbacher. But you knew that!)